Claire Kennedy Design

Wow!!! What a surprise

Last week while trekking southward for another underwater photography trip (photographs here but don't ask how this is related to formal wear design - I dunno!!!), and trying to avoid Ike at the same time.

So I was in Dallas. So trying to get my new Verizon wireless card for my new laptop....

....and go to the store to have them do everything - which they did.  As I was checking out and giving my email address....claireokc@clairekennedesign.com.....she asks if I'm the famous Claire Kennedy of Claire Kennedy Design. 

Now I'm going through my who's-buried-in-Grant's-tomb routine and thinking she's just being cute so tell her that it is me that is the famous Claire Kennedy of the famous Claire Kennedy Design firm!!! 

Ha - aren't I glib - yeah, I thought so too.

She then proceeds to tell me she attended the Art Institute of Houston and that she had seen a video done on me at the school. 

I'm thinking - OKaaaaay - now who has taped me lately.  Then I remember my niece did a piece on me for a class at OU when she was majoring in PR.   She gave me a copy and I thought it was really cool. 

Here it is!!!

So I check in with my niece

and she says that her teacher had entered it into a contest and it won 3rd prize - Hey that's so kewl for her and really kewl for me....apparently it's being shown in Design schools as a "prize winning" video!

Well, how can I argue with that!!!

Fashion and Art, Part 2

Yesterday I talked about the original Haute Couture which means high fashion, is actually what all fashion used to be.  This was the days of early designers when "fashion" and "trends".

Enter the way back machine and imagine a time when communications was so sloooooow, or fiefdoms, kingdoms and city-states were so divided and separated that what people wore just wasn't a trend. It was a "regional" style, not a fashion or trend.

Suddenly enter Charles Frederick Worth who developed a general style that would be worn by women in different regions - the same style for all regions - what a concept!!!!   Then comes Coco Channel, Pierre Balmain, Christian Dior, Yves St. Larent and on and on. 

Pretty soon - especially during the 50's, these designers had so much power that their very word was the last word on fashion.  If your dresses were thin, full, long, short, tight, loose, long tall woman in a red dress - Oh - I got carried away.

This cause the first upheaval in fashion - the 60's....Twiggy, Mary Quant, Marimekko, Peter Max all represented a new style - you could wear long and short.  OK short was really in, but the "Summer of Love" and hippie style was the long skirt.  

So what happens to couture?....in the 50's during its height, couture was a beautifully constructed garment that was full of detail and gorgeous fabrics.  But when the 60's hit, couture had problems.  Why?  Because this new style was so innovative and simple and elegant that couture had nothing to offer - - couture had to reinvent itself.

 

On top of this - Prêt-à-Porter or Ready-to-Wear (RTW), can retool these simple designs and offer them for a small fraction of what the designer is offering.

Haute Couture was dead and just waiting for a funeral.  All through the 60's there was a huge debate about the value and existance of Haute Couture. 

 

Then enter Givenchy (a la Audrey Hepburn)

and

 

Yves St. Laurent.  He invented and perfected the pants suit.  Couture was back.  Good design and the "cut" were king of Haute Couture.

The 80's saw a resurgence of ornamentation to the extent that the aristocracy of Europe could only dream.  Haute Couture was truly in it's element and the couture of the 80's was beautifully elegant and something that only Haute Couture could accomplish.

But the 90's saw the "Grundge". (Yes, there is not picture here - it's just not worth it!)  I'm not a fan nor will I ever be a fan of this style.  It was probably due to the over-indulgence and over-embroidery and over-ornamentation of the 80's called for a change, and over-reaction to that style.  As Polly Melon said, "Ugly is beautiful" became the ultimate goal.  But Polly - ugly is not beautiful:  ugly is ugly and beautiful is beautiful no matter how many times you say it. 

This caused a huge schism in the design world - was a women trotting down the run way half nude syle?  Was a woman dressed in something so baggy you didn't know if it was male or femal style?  Was this really a trend? 

In the middle of this, Haute Couture took on a completely different look and feel.  It went completely artistic.

 

There was a complete redo of how to do Haute Couture, and designers were given a free hand.  In some design houses in Paris, the couture department completely shut down.  This sort of designing is for the purpose of designing and that's it...sales -pft!!!....profits - who cares!!!....the bottom line - well as long as it was uneven, that's what was important!  Needless to say this lost all practicality.

The funny part is the very clients who can afford the Haute Couture - usually $80,000 and up to whatever, were women who could no more wear this artistic design than a stick figure.  The designers were not designing for their clientele.  They were designing for the sake of design.  Something had to give.

Believe it or not, Hollywood was a bastion of good design.  The personal consultant was born, and movie stars hired stylists to dress them.  Women, especially on the red carpets of Hollywood were beautiful again.

 

Now honestly - wouldn't you love wearing this dress?  It's beautiful. 

 

Hollywood wasn't the only source of good beautiful Haute Couture....

...Royalty. 

Catherine Walker who designed for Princess Diana, is a typical example.  Her understanding of the needs of Princess Diana and the her shape, created some of the most beautiful clothing for the princess.

 
This was rumored to be one of Princess Diana's favorite gowns and no wonder - Catherine Walker did an outstanding job of totally accentuating the princess's assets and you can not see anything of her figure faults with the added detail of the pearl beading that is obviously hand beaded - the jacket had to be cut out to know where the denser cluster of pearls were to be.

Wow!  Doesn't Diana look terrific here.   Diana wanted to look strong, beautiful and like she knew what and who she was.  This was the night her husband was telling his side of the story of the divorce, and out she stepped in this drop dead dress to a fund-raiser and stole his thunder.  She didn't do it because she followed some fashion trend - she followed the counsel and advice of designers who may not have been well known but did beautiful clothes.

This goes back to another blog I made on what makes a woman pretty.  This isn't to say that there aren't wonderful fashions of today.  It is to say we need more of it, and fortunately we are returning to that prettier vivre la différence look.

Fashion and Art, Part 1

Fashion is art - duh!!! 
 

OK, that sounds simple, but it's really not, but it is!!!  Excuse me while I take my medication and start that again!  What I really mean to say is that art permeates every aspect of our lives, and that without it our life would most likely be colorless, odorless and tasteless - OK not odorless, but almost!!!

Art is what makes our everyday life really beautiful, and haute couture is the very most ultimate of design - isn't this the most beautiful top.  When I look at this I KNOW that it has been hand done....look at the symmetry of the design and how it wraps appropriately around the bust, with the majority of the beading around the neck.  You want the majority of the detail, and expense of the dress around the face where it will show.

This jacket has ribbons created from fabric shaped and formed over the fabric to follow the line of the jacket.  It has to all be done by hand so that the line of the jacket can be found, but also to go over the seams and darts.  It's a dead give-away to be couture - there's no way to alter this - it's made to fit.

 
Couture used to be for the very rich.  In Europe, the upper class who supported this very fine couture.  The clothes were elegantly made and worked at being flattering for even the most "grande dame" of figures.

Photographs are not the best way to represent the beauty of these beautiful works, but it's all we have here.  What you can see in this photo is that the front is matched.  It's not a perfect match, but the embroidery is symmetrical....start at the bottom of the center front - the circular design has the same flowers matching inversely all the way up to the top.  This is only done one way - this embroidery is done after the garment is cut. 

So the design is gorgeous in itself, but here's a close-up of the embroidery
 
This begins to show the detail that is throughout the dress.  Today all of this would be done by machine, which some may lament, but it also makes it affordable to many  more people, although the design would be the same throughout, so there would be no mirrored symmetry as in the jacket above.

Looking at Haute Couture this way, makes it really a fine art of clothing design and construction.

The line and cut of a dress were as important as the embroidery and detail.  All of this went into making a gorgeous garment that was not only wearable, but usually lasted year after year.

Tomorrow - I talk about what happens when this is taken to the extreme!

First Ladies Fashion

After watching both conventions the last couple of weeks and looking at the grand ex-presidents of each party, it brought to mind how much influence a new first lady has.  And since we will have a new first lady no matter which party, I thought it would be fun to take a trip through some of the first ladies - I'm probably going to date myself here, but here goes.

Bess Truman was the first, first lady I remember - she was stern and really hated Washington DC and didn't live there much.  Her style was no-nonsense - sort of like "The Buck Stops Here" Harry!!!!  This almost reverted back to the first of the century and some John Singer Sargent portrait!

After the severity and austerity of the Trumans - in came the Eisenhowers to usher in the beginning of the post-war affluence of the new world power.  Mamie would NEVER be seen downtown without her gloves and hat - nor would she have been at a formal even without her evening gloves.

Oh My Goodness and then we hit the fashion trifecta!!!!  There wasn't a thing this lady did that wasn't thought-out, well-done, and above all tasteful without ever being over-done.  (Note to self - do a blog on the wonderful style and panache of this lady.)


The shock of the ascension of the Johnsons was abrupt and something that the Johnsons could have never prepared for.  No One - including the Princess of Monaco, Babe Paley, C. Z. Guest and Pat Buckley could have followed the grace and style of Jackie K!  But Ladybird held up pretty darn well - although the great style of Jackie was missed.

After the grandeur of the Kennedys, Nixons were very sensible and quiet with their style.  Pat had a style that was marked mostly by her classic trendless styles. She wasn't as flashy as the former administrations, but her style is totally timeless.

Although the Fords came to the office of the President about as abruptly and unglamorous as the Johnsons, I always thought Betty Ford had a lot of style.  Pat was very sensible, but Betty seem to have just a touch of individuality that made her style her own.  Had not her husband been so preoccupied with the troubles of the former administration, Betty probably would have had more affect on styles of the day.

Rosalyn Carter, was the epitome of sensible dressing.  Often I have thought that the "old monied" East-coasters would dress just slightly dressier than the people who work for them, I often felt Rosalyn dressed almost to dress "down" rather than dressing up.

Again it seems have a drought of fashion-conscious ladies, the White House has a glamorous first lady to celebrate the style of the country and people were ready for great style and Nancy delivered in spades - or rather hearts.....Reagan Red hearts.  Nancy had a huge impact on the fashion of the time.  The 80's saw overdone ornamentation nothing was too much or too over-the-top!  The economy was booming nation-wide and people were ready to celebrate and did.

As much as Reagan would have loved to have run for a 3rd (and probably 4th) term, term limits prevented it, but his legacy was so enduring that the Bush's came right in.  Barbara Bush, "The Silver Fox" was as much an influence as Nancy Regan.  She had a classic style, but she also had enough of her own trademark that she was apart from Nancy.  She had her classic 3-strand of pearls and wore clothes that maybe other women her size wouldn't think of wearing, but looked fabulous in all her clothes.  This was the first time I saw that a garment when property proportioned and properly fitted, looked great on all body shapes, and Barbara didn't have any svelte figure!!!  But you couldn't help but like her for her style and her personality.

The next generation hits with a bang, and in comes a completely different type of first lady - a working first lady.  Social, but also someone who worked and wore the traditional working clothes - pants suits.  Although they had been worn before, Hillary made this a staple of her wardrobe.  However, unlike the former two first ladies, Hilliary had a little learning curve.  Although she was adamant about making it clear that her hair and clothes were not to be the main topic of the first lady's office, she did finally learn that looking professional also meant looking as attractive as possible which meant an attractive hair cut/hair do, and attractive clothes - sometimes even something other than pants suit.

Back to a more traditional first lady, and yet stylish at the same time.  I remember sitting in Dallas and listening to Michael Faircloth wondering what to do about his inaugural customers.  He had been Laura Bush's designer for years and was scheduled to do her inaugural gown.  I was doing the state's governor's wife's gown - also a Republican - for the inaugural ball and several other customers while the chads were being counted in Florida.  Who would have guessed it would go on this long.  Michael gave me some ideas about how to cope with the loss of time we were dealing with, and mostly we just laughed.

Laura has had a lovely style, and Michael only really made one mistake with her wardrobe and learned fast.  Laura never diverged much from her basic style which was a suit, buttoned high and simple straight skirt.  This dress was probably one of her favorites as it had this same wonderful style that Laura looked so well in.

This year's convention shows another lady with great style.  It will be interesting to see how Cindy McCain will grow into a White House first lady.  She's had enough practice around this sort of thing, that I imagine she will make a few mistakes, but learn very quickly.
 

On the other hand, Michelle probably has her own style, however I suspect she will have to learn the same thing that Hillary did - - that good style and classic lines are always a good bet.


No discussion of the first ladies can ignore the new Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her delightfully refreshing  "hockey mom" style.  This is probably the style of most car-poolin', soccer-lovin', hockey-hittin' moms!  They have to be versatile, comfortable, attractive, chic, yet has to be durable enough to throw in the wash and come out looking like it was just purchased.  Sarah Palin's travels through the national fashion scene will be fascinating to watch if her partner is elected.